Effects of gender, age, and education on entrepreneurial orientation and intentions among freelancers

Abstract

The topic of this paper are the values of the individual entrepreneurial orientation and the Theory of planned behavior dimensions, among freelancers in the Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia). The effects of four control variables: gender, age, education level, and previous entrepreneurial experience were also examined. Freelancers best perceive support for an entrepreneurial venture as well as their proactivity. Entrepreneurial intentions were assessed as the worst. The greatest impact on the observed dimensions occurs in the division of the sample into freelancers who have/do not have previous experience in entrepreneurship. As for the other control variables, statistically significant differences occur in only three other cases: dimensions RT - Risk-taking and PBC - Perceived behavioral control on the side of male freelancers, and dimension IN - Innovativeness on the side of younger freelancers. A comparison was made with a similar study, where the respondents were conventional employees. In general, freelancers have greater entrepreneurial intentions than conventional employees. Freelancers are more consistent in terms of entrepreneurial intentions: there are no differences in these intentions if the sample is divided according to the gender and age of freelancers. These results are discussed in the paper.